Adding Another Title

Now you can call me teacher! We started talking last fall about the possibility of homeschooling monkey as of the 2010-2011 school year. We bought an amazing house at the end of October however it came with a not so amazing school zone. I found out recently that they are going to close that school after the current year ends however instead of rezoning and distributing the kids they are moving the entire student body to another local school. Then rezoning and distrubting those current kids. So, new school same problem which is really low test scores and a horrible crime rate. The crime rate baffles me though since the school sits right next to a police department but who knows.

We tried, and failed, to get her into the magnet program which would have sent her to a better school. The thing with those is after kindergarten its apparently impossible to get in because all existing kids and their siblings have priority. So that put us back to the homeschooling option.

I've been searching and searching trying to find something that would be a good fit for us. I mean, not only would I have Monkey, Toots, and Baby Girl home all day with me...I'd also have my daycare to run which will consist of 7-8 other kids! Yes, I have an assistant starting with me so that would help but I would still have to make time for Monkey's schooling too.

Then I found www.time4learning.com and it looks very promising. Actually I'm almost certain this is the program we will go with. The provide a complete curriculum based on grade level which we have to submit to the schools here. It's online activities, learning, testing for her based on her grade level. It can be customized to her needs as well which is nice since she is advanced in several areas. It provides online progress reports and completion reports which are needed to show the school system that she is in fact learning. I can even pull information from it to do home activities that tie into what she is learning and depending on what it is can incorporate it with the daycare kiddo's too for a fun activity. I'm actually considering signing up for it with 2 kids so I can get the preschool curriculum as well specifically for the daycare. We'll see on that part though.

So, I guess now I can add the teacher title to ever growing list. It should be a fun and interesting adventure. I've talked to Monkey about her staying home to do schooling and in some ways she seems excited but in others sad too. Mostly for the social aspect but with our local mom's group and all the people we now know we should have no problem keeping her busy and socialized.

Eight

Baby girl is now 8 weeks old!! Has it really been that long already? I swear with every baby we have the time just goes by faster. Course that could be because I have more to do as the day goes by.

Here she is, our pretty baby girl...

And one to show her personality....her goofy face...

Introducing Baby Girl

On April 7th we started the induction officially around 6:45am by the time they got all the check in stuff done. The nurse got me put on the GBS meds and started the pitocin at the lowest setting. I was at 3cm at that point, 90% effaced. By 9am the contractions had regulated to about 3-4mins apart and were fine for me to handle although I decided to stand up and just rock through them rather than sit or lay in the bed. About 10am I asked the nurse to checked me and we were at 5cm. Standing up through the contractions was amazing and I can was even laughing/talking through them. I remember telling our friend that it seemed like I should be hurting way more since I was on pitocin and no epidural. At about 11:45 the doctor decided to break my water which made me nervous because I've heard the pain is much worse at that point. Thankfully I was able to get back up out of bed and then it didn't take long for things to progress. By 12:15 I could no longer talk through the contractions and could feel her coming down. I felt it all in my hips and I told our friend every contraction made me have the bathroom feeling and it was getting worse with each one. I kept having the urge to squat down as well which really helped with the contractions. Doc came in checked me and said I was at 8cm. 15 mins later I had just barely a lip left and felt like I had to push. Needless to say it was a rush to set things up.

I don't know how many times I pushed but she came fast. She was born at 12:58pm weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21inches long. A little chunker for sure. I had no tearing and didn't need any pain meds at all. I was up pretty quick afterwards including getting a shower with in an hour or so after she was born. Even better since there was no epi the IV got taken out right away which was awesome.

I gotta say going natural was definetely an experience. Immediately afterwards I was like "never again!" LOL. I think I even said that to the doc right after she was born. Now, it doesn't seem so bad. Gotta love that memory loss. Our friend that came was a huge help. My biggest thing was really wanting to know where she was at. I wanted to know if you could see her head or if she was crowning and all that and the doc would just tell me to push. So my friend would just whisper to me I can see "xx" or "yy" and it helped me to know how far we were and had to go. I didn't want to watch with th emirror but her words gave me enough of the visual I needed.

Oh and I never in a million years thought she was going to be so big. The way I was carrying I really thought she would be smaller than Toots. Talk about a surprise but a pleasant one too. Her cheeks are just so plump and kissable!

I stink at this

I'm really not a good blogger. Or least I'm not as good as I used to be. Looking back at the history I was posting almost every day for awhile...sometimes more than once a day! Now....it's been like 4 months since my last one. And even that one was laminating over the fact that it had been 2 months since the one before that. What can I say....life gets away from you at times.

Blessings

Do you ever stop and take a momen to count your blessings?? Or do you just take for granted all the things you have whether it be your home, your job, even your kids?? Recently I've been lead to really be thankful for all that we have. Not necessarily the material things either. Yes, I love our home and all of our beautiful things in it. I'm thankful that Mr. X has a job that pays well even if it does take him away from us a lot.


What I'm really thankful for though is that we have been blessed with three beautiful, healthy children. In light of recent events involving a couple friends of ours it has made me realize just how lucky we are. Or maybe lucky is the wrong word because really...what does luck have to do with it??

Whats it been?

2 months since I posted here! Gotta be the longest I've gone with out blogging anything right? And it's not like I haven't had something to blog about. There have been lots of changes in our little world. Some good....well all good really. Lets see.....

Mr. X and I survived our first deployment. He left mid Sept and got back the day before Thanksgiving. it wasn't a full 6 month deployment but the longest by far that we had been apart since the day we met. It was wierd not having him around and having to do everything myself but we survived and the day he came home was bittersweet. He looked pretty good in that uniform too...LOL

At the end of October we moved into a new house. The day before closing I also managed to fall at work and injure my tailbone. Needless to say it made packing/moving interesting but I have an amazing set of friends who helped the whole way. We would have never made it with out them! We love the new house too and the amount of space we now have. This is by far the biggest house I've ever lived in so it's taken some adjustment but not one I'll complain about.

In November, jsut before Mr. X returned home I quit my job. The job I've had for the last 7 1/2 years i walked out on. Not exactly in the most professional way but I did what I had to. Things were already stressful before the tailbone injury. After the fall it got 10x's worse. Between that, the kids, the house, and an impending homecoming I was stressed beyond my max and something had to go. While I'm sure several people would love my kids or house I don't think Mr. X would have appreciated me letting them go. It's been an adjustment not working anymore but honestly, the BEST decision I have ever made.

At the beginning of December, the 1st actually, we had our big ultrasound for baby bean. Hard to believe we're 24 weeks as of today!! Anyways, we found out that our little tie breaker is a GIRL! Yes we have a name for her but we are keeping it to ourselves for now. No worries, only a few more weeks till everyone will know. LOL

The big knews though is that just a few days later Mr. X and I tied the knot. Yes, we got married! I'll do a seperate post with all the details fo that since this one is rather long as it is but it is definitely a story all our own. I always told everyone that it would be a "Guess what we did today" moment and it was exactly that.

Life as a married woman has been interesting and it's only been just over a week. I love my rings and try not to stare at them TOO often. Mr. X likes to spoil me though so they are beautiful. Anyways, more on that later.

Guess thats it for now.

Rules of Marriage from a kids point of view

Rules of Marriage, as described by kids....

1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
-You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.. - - Alan, age 10
-No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -- Kristen, age 10

2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -- Camille, age 10

3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF 2 PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. -- Derrick, age 8

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids. -- Lori, age 8

5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)
-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10

6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
-When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7
-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. - - Curt, age 7
-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.. - - Howard, age 8

7.. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -- Anita, age 9 (bless you child )

8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there? -- Kelvin, age 8

And the #1 Favorite is .......

9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck . -- Ricky , age 10